Oak Lawn, Ill. – A new method of treating peripheral artery disease (PAD) is putting physicians at the Advocate Heart Institute at Christ Medical Center at the forefront of treatment options.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has just approved the use of a new product, and Christ Medical Center is the first hospital in Illinois and one of the first medical centers in the nation offering the procedure, which utilizes the Pantheris™ Lumivascular Atherectomy System.
Quite similar to plugged heart arteries, fatty material known as plaque can build up in the arteries that transport oxygen-rich blood to the head, stomach, arms and legs, and interfere with the flow of this blood.
The Pantheris system is the first-ever image-guided atherectomy catheter, which allows a physician to visualize plaque as it is removed from a blood vessel wall via a catheter that is inserted inside a patient’s femoral artery and guided to the area of the blockage. An imaging fiber located at the end of the catheter and uses light to provide live, real-time images of the artery during the procedure. This provides unprecedented information to the operator and allows for safe removal of plaque without damaging any structures within the artery.
PAD is characterized by symptoms such as leg or calf pain and a weak pulse in the legs or feet. More serious complications can include skin ulcers, gangrene and even amputation.
Until now, options for treating PAD have ranged from exercise and drug therapy to surgical bypass or minimally invasive techniques to clear the plaque from the diseased artery. This new technique provides a much greater level of control and visualization for physicians than ever before.
“What is unique about this technology is the fact that we now have an unprecedented ability to image within the artery while removing the plaque,” says Jaafer Golzar, MD, an Advocate Heart Institute cardiovascular specialist.
“Because this allows us to safely remove plaque without damaging the blood vessel, we hope to prevent scar tissue formation, which can cause the vessel to block up again, known as reocclusion. Scar tissue is the main reason for reocclusion after both bypass and endovascular therapies,” he says.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that about 8 million Americans suffer from PAD.
Advocate Heart Institute
Advocate Heart Institute is Illinois’ most comprehensive cardiac care program, providing state-of-the-art treatment for adults and children. Advocate Heart Institute operates more than 100 convenient locations with more than 350 cardiovascular specialists who perform more than 20,000 heart procedures each year—more than any other hospital in Chicago. Advocate Heart Institute also trains future cardiologists at its three teaching hospitals. Eight Advocate hospitals are recognized by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Associations’ Get With the Guidelines® program for high quality care and improved outcomes in the areas of heart failure, stroke and resuscitation. Advocate Children’s Heart Institute is also one of the largest programs in the Midwest and is nationally recognized by U.S. News and World Report as one of the Top 50 Pediatric Cardiology Programs in the country. For the third consecutive year, Advocate Children’s Heart Institute has earned the Society of Thoracic Surgeons highest national quality three-star rating for its pediatric cardiovascular surgery program.
About Advocate Christ Medical Center
Advocate Christ Medical Center is part of Advocate Health Care, which is one of the nation’s leading health care networks. A not-for-profit, 749-bed, premier teaching institution with more than 1,200 affiliated physicians, Christ Medical Center is a leader in health care and one of the major referral hospitals in the Midwest in a number of specialties, including cardiovascular services, heart, kidney and lung transplantation, neurosciences, oncology, orthopedics and women’s health. The hospital also has one of the busiest Level I trauma centers in Illinois providing emergency care for more than 100,000 patient visits annually and is a leader in breakthrough technologies, including eICU® (electronic intensive care unit) monitoring, robotic da Vinci Surgery System® and CyberKnife® Radiosurgery. U.S. News & World Report has ranked the medical center among the nation’s leading providers for cardiology and heart surgery, gynecology and pulmonology and rated it overall as being among the top five hospitals in Illinois. The hospital is also recognized by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) as a Magnet Center. Magnet status represents the highest honor in the nursing profession. To obtain more information or to visit our newsroom, log on to: www.advocatehealth.com/https://www.advocatehealth.com/cmc.